BISMARCK — Members of the State Historical Society, joined by Governor Doug Burgum, announced today the North Dakota Governor’s Mansion is the 2019 recipient of the annual Innovation in Mortuary Design Award.
The prestigious award given by Mortuary Digest honors memorials, mausoleums, and structures that “embody the spirit of mortuary science and serve as monuments to the afterlife.”
Mortuary Digest says they receive hundreds of nominations each year for their coveted award, but the North Dakota Governor’s Mansion clearly stood out among the competition in this year’s contest.
“Out of all the nominations we received, no monument better embodied the grim reality of the afterlife better than the North Dakota Governor’s Mansion,” says Mortuary Digest Editor Leota Tombs. “It’s overwhelming sense of emptiness and cold, flat exterior was clearly designed with morticians in mind. And when we toured the facility in person and witnessed for ourselves dozens of lifeless, wayward bodies working just a few feet away in the State Capitol, we knew we had a winner on our hands. Bravo North Dakota and congratulations again.”
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum says the award is just further proof that the state is leading the nation in innovation and creativity.
“We were rather surprised to learn North Dakota was the recipient of this prestigious award,” said Governor Burgum. “Then again, it should come to no surprise that North Dakota is a leader of innovation in the country and is paving a path of creativity, curiosity and forward thinking.”
North Dakota Represenative and funeral director Mike Nathe says the Mortuary Digest Design Award is the “Nobel Peace Prize” of the funeral industry.
“Next to being embalmbed by a fellow funeral director, I can think of no higher honor than this,” says Nathe.
Construction on the new Governor’s Mansion was completed in the spring of 2018. The mansion features several meeting spaces as well as private living quarters for the Governor and First Lady. The basement of the mansion houses the remains of all past North Dakota Governors dating back to John Miller, North Dakota’s first governor.
The mansion’s design was outsourced to a Minnesota firm who was instrumental in the design of North Dakota’s revised tourism logo.
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